The FanFiction Guide to Fanfiction
by Bookworm1756
Summary: But not just any guide, the ULTIMATE guide, to help beginners to this amazing site that you are currently situated upon. A subject is chosen every chapter, and in that chapter I write tips, advice, and my own learning experiences. This will accumulate to create short lessons to guide you so that you become wonderful and amazing writers. Let's do this!
1. Titles

**BEGINNING NOTE THAT COMES BEFORE THE BEGINNING NOTE**

This is my second try with this guide. Everything in the first four chapters (or some modification of it) has been published in my first attempt of this tale, but unfortunately that story was taken down. That is why I waited around two months to try again. Although, I'm afraid that if the guide gets removed for a second time I'm not going to risk putting it up again. Sorry.

**BEGINNING NOTE**

Well, now that we've cleared that up for all the people who had been following the deleted story and are wondering, _What the heck? Where did the thingamabober go? _I will begin with the _real _introduction.

This is a guide that's supposed to help beginners to this amazing site that you are currently situated upon. I've noticed most (not all, but most) of these kinds of guides swear like heck, and sort of disown you, and just tell you what you're doing wrong without giving any tips on how to correct it.

But this is how _I _work—a subject is chosen every chapter, and in that chapter I write tips, advice, and my own learning experiences. This will accumulate to create short lessons to guide you so that you become wonderful and amazing writers.

Any-whoozies, hope this helps!

-Bookworm1756

(PS: Any bolded notes are highlights you might want to remember. Either way there's a recap after each chapter.)

(WARNING: There are jokes in these chapters. Really bad ones. If you want to read this guide, you'll have to put up with them. Sorry.)

* * *

**Titles**

**Titles are important.** Before the summary, before the info, before reading, before ANYTHING, there is the title. It is what the reader first sees when they are innocently browsing through the list of stories. This is what makes them IMPORTANT. IMPORTANT IMPORTANT IMPORTANT.

They must **DRAW ATTENTION!**

They must **IMPRESS READERS!**

And they **ABSOLUTELY MUST NOT BE IMMATURE AND SILLY! **(More on this later.)

**But there are different titles for different kinds of stories.** Example, you are not going to name a short oneshot:

THE LONG SERIES OF EVEN MORE LONG EVENTS.

(…That was a horrible example, I'm sorry.)

I will now give out some advice for a title for each kind of story.

* * *

**Oneshots:** MAJORLY depends on the genre.

**1. **If it's happy, comedy, parody, and those other awesome joyful things, **the title should be humorous**. But not TOO silly. **THERE IS SUCH THING AS TOO SILLY** (even though I'm being silly for making that all capitals).

Example: For a story that's about a silly day with the Seven at the beach, consider…

_Summer Days_

But not…

_The Seven Have a Blast at the Beach!_

See, you've done several things there. One, you've already told the readers what happens. They don't know if there's going to be a storm, or a tsunami, or some drama and action. (Percy rides a shark, the sun blows up, etc.) You've given them spoilers. **Don't explain the story in the title! That's what the summary is for.**

Next, you've already made the title WAY too long! Shorten it up a bit. **People want to imagine what happens!**

BUT if you're better off long than short, go for long. **With your title, you need to sort of lead the readers in the direction you want them to go in, then leave them hanging.**

Example: Percabeth in Tartarus. If Rick had left it off at 'And then something tragic happened', fangirls wouldn't have reacted the same as if he left off at 'And then Percabeth fell into Tartarus, oopsie-daisy'.

In Summer Days, you know that it's during the summer because of the word 'days'. Days of the summer. Summer days. Cool. The summary does the rest of the explaining.

**(Although, for fun oneshots, don't use just one word. That's TOO short. **Too much and too little of everything is bad. You be the judge of if your title is okay or not.)

And finally, too silly! TOO SILLY! You think Summer Days isn't silly at all, but would you prefer just 'Summer'? It's summer. So what? The combination of the two words 'summer' and 'days' result in the main idea, so people know what to think and expect.

If the story is humour, then aim for a more humourous title. Remember, **it's all with the genre.**

**-o-O-o-**

**2. **Now… if the story is a bit more tragic and emotion-y, try a title that is sad and tragic and emotion-y. If it's about Leo closing the doors of death, then you should consider using the last word of the story as a title, or a word that creates a huge impact on the reader. **Repeat: For sad and emotional stories, use a phrase or word from near the ending of the story. **(You _could_ do just any phrase, but the later the better because when the readers reach the end, they'll see that final line, and think, "Oh, _now_ I get it." And then they'll sob because the story they just read was terrifyingly sad.)

Example:

_Gone  
__Piper sobbed in her hands. "Is he really…?" she asked, as if there was still a small chance that the inevitable had yet to come. She didn't finish, not wanting to say it.  
__Jason wrapped his arms around her. "I'm sorry," he said. "But Leo is gone."_

Another example: I have a oneshot called This is What Friends Are For. I'm not saying anything for spoilers, but basically it's Piper and Jason reminding Leo that he isn't alone in the world, and that he has friends. Piper's last words are, "Don't worry about it. This is what friends are for."

BAM! I have my title.

a) It doesn't explain ANYTHING about the story except that it's friendship.

b) Yes, it's long. I am a hypocrite. **BUT if the title would be better off long than short and has the same result anyway, do it.** Would you have wanted to read the story if the title was just 'Friends'? Not as much.

**-o-O-o-**

**3. **If the story is a series of oneshots, just be plain and simple. 100 Percabeth Oneshots. Grimm's Fairy Tales. Wayside Stories of Wayside School. Et cetera. You can't really give it a short interesting name because there are so many different stories, and you can't name them all. You name each oneshot with chapter titles, which we will talk more about later on in this guide. (But people LOVE Percabeth. If you say there's Percabeth in the title, then BAM WITH A FLASH OF LIGHTNING! People click on the story.)

NOTE: I think this is the only kind of story where explanatory titles are okay and can be used freely.

**-o-O-o-**

**4.** Song-fic: Just use the title of the song. No need to dress up and get fancy.

* * *

Now, for the poem: **Consider a meaningful and powerful line from your poem.** A line that has tons of emotion and thought put into it. (Similar to the tragic oneshot.)

Example:

_And the World  
__Wind-blown black hair…  
__Crooked smile…  
__Warm embrace…  
__All those special little things about him and the world._

(Of course, your poem will not be that short. I just need to make a point.)

**It doesn't really matter how long or short the title is, as long as it impacts.**

(And yes, I suck at poems. No need to comment on my lack of skill in this area.)

* * *

**Multi-chapter:** Well, choose a topic the story is about. **Choose an event that happens, and turn it into your title.** I'm going to use one of my own stories as an example: Life at the Wilderness School. Piper and Leo are only at the Wilderness School for, like, ten chapters. And there are more than forty chapters.

But you know why I chose that name? **It drew attention!** All them Leo fangirls are innocently scrollin' through the story section and looking for a good Leo story to read, when BAM! _Life at the Wilderness School!_ They click on it, and that's step one. After that your skills are the only thing that keeps them reading.

Say for example I had chosen to name that story _Leo and Piper's Amazing Story of How They Went to School, CHB, and then Off to Save the World._

(Okay, I exaggerated that. But you get the point.)

NO ONE would have bothered continue reading the summary, even if they were hardcore Leo fans. The title is **TOO SILLY**. (Remember when I mentioned that earlier?) They'll think the writer is young and immature, and then think the story is young and immature and will ridicule Leo horribly.

**(Unless, of course, your story is parody. Then the sky is basically not even close to the limit when it comes to silliness!)**

And the too-much-information bit I had talked about earlier!

Now, what if the story only takes place around ONE thing? ONE problem. ONE way to fix everything. Then, no-brainer, base the title on that. But that's the simple version. To make things a bit more interesting, you could name it after…

An important object/person with another title (so 'Percy' would be the 'Son of Neptune') [The Lost Hero/The Mark of Athena]

An action that is happening during the book (probably the main problem) [End of Days]

An important idea [The Eternity Code]

An important incident/event [The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King]

An important place [The Sea of Monsters]

A cool phrase used in the middle of the story [Last Stand of Dead Men] (Usually for published novels.)

An important name/noun [The Hunger Games]

A quote, maybe from the bible or Shakespeare or something, that summarizes the moral or is just cool-sounding [The Fault in our Stars]

A cool word that has nothing to do with the book [Nevermore]

**And remember if you're doing a series to make the names similar!**

Examples:

The books of The Missing series by Margaret Peterson Haddix; they all have one word verbs as titles, the verbs indicating what the main idea is. (Found, Sent, Sabotaged, Torn, Caught, etc.)

And the Lorien Legacies all have numbers in their title. Probably because the seven main protagonists have numbers as names.

* * *

**Also a few more noticeable mentions…**

Caps lock? Don't use it. You know why? (Say it with me if you can.)_ The readers will think that the writer is young and immature, and then think the story is young and immature._ There! (This guide is the only exception because I say so.)

Don't use words like 'awesome', 'epic', or any of their synonyms in the title. Remember young and immature. Use them in the summary.

Another thing you could do: if the summary sort of repeats the same line over and over (see the second example in exercises below), you can make the title that line that repeats.

And bend these rules a bit. If you use a title that goes against what I just said but you think it's fine to use, then by all means go for it!

* * *

**Exercises!**

I will sometimes do this in a chapter. They're basically exercises to practice what we've learned ('cause I've learned a lot by writing this out as well). For this chapter I will give you a summary for a story, and you need to give me a title. (These are all made up stories off the top of my head.)

**1) **Somewhere over the rainbow… someone lives a happier life. Somewhere over the rainbow… a child is laughing for the first time. Somewhere over the rainbow… someone's dreams are about to come true, while over on this side someone's are only getting darker. Poems of dreams of over the rainbow.

**2) **High School Senior Annabeth Chase has moved from California to New York in an attempt to leave her old self behind. But she is quickly put in danger when a certain green-eyed classmate gets a hold of her secret. Will she be able to cheat her way out of this? Or will the truth of Annabeth's past be revealed? AU

**3) **Seven times Frank Zhang was teased for his nationality, and the one time he got the last laugh. Oneshot

* * *

**RECAP**

Titles are important. They must…

a) Draw attention  
b) Impress readers  
c) Not be silly

Don't give out too much information in the title, but not too little either.

The type of title (humerous, angst, etc.) should correspond with the genre of the story.

And be creative! These are just my own tips, but don't let them keep you back from being free... to do... like... stuff. Yeah.

**Keep on writing ;)**

**-Bookworm**


	2. Summaries

**Summaries (that shouldn't actually be summaries)**

Ah… the summary. After the title, it is the main thing that draws attention to your story. So they are important. IMPORTANT IMPORTANT IMPORT—I'm sorry, we already did this in the last chapter.

And, contradicting the popular belief, **summaries can be short.** For my Mount Olympus Dance Party story, my summary was, like, two phrases. And BAM! I've got 275+ reviews.

**It's QUALITY, not QUANTITY.**

I said what I needed to say, and didn't need to say more.

* * *

So, on the quality note, **no text language.** (I'm sorry, that's just how the universe works.)

* * *

I'm going to give an example of a bad summary, then point out why it's bad. Then I'll write out a better version. (I'm using the beach party example from the last chapter.)

_Percy, Annabeth, Leo, Piper, Jason, Hazel and Frank decide to go to the beach one day after the war first story plz read no flames R&R_

**One**: You don't need to list all the characters. Just say 'the Seven'.  
**Two**: Punctuation. Please?  
**Three**: What is it with people when they say _'plz no flames'_? I have yet to see one of those signs that spells 'please' properly.  
**Four**: This sounds like a plot-less fic to me. You know, the stories that go on and on and there's no real purpose to them? Even if it is one of those stories, you have to make it SOUND as if it isn't.  
**Five**: Remember the last chapter when I said that the title had to draw attention, and then suddenly stop? Well, you gave out too much information. **(So technically these summaries shouldn't be summaries, but synopsis. )**

_Ah… the wonders of summer. No homework, kids play outdoors for once, parents seem sulkier than usual… et cetera. Unfortunately, Leo's summer hasn't exactly been 'fun'. (Remember that war against Gaea? Yeah… that_ totally_ didn't scar him for life.) But Camp Jupiter is right next door to one of the world's natural wonders, and they might as well take advantage of it._

FanFiction probably wouldn't allow such a long summary. BUT THAT ISN'T THE POINT.

See the difference? I made (horrible) jokes, and made it interesting. **People may not want to read the story just because of its topic, but they were certainly drawn to it.**

* * *

**And it's okay to list pairings in the summary.** But if all of the pairings are canon, you really have no need to do this.

* * *

**Explain the story, but don't give anything away.** Would you want to read a story that told you what was going to happen? (So make them synopsis.)

I will now use a real-life summary from a real book I happen to have in my room, and explain why it is _perfect._

_NINE of us came here.  
__WE look like you.  
__WE talk like you.  
__WE live among you—but  
__WE are not you.  
__WE have powers you dream of having.  
__WE are the superheroes you worship in movies and comic books—  
__BUT we are real.  
__THEY caught number one in Malaysia. Number two in England. And number three in Kenya.  
__THEY killed them all.  
__I AM NUMBER FOUR. I AM NEXT._

One, you know these aren't humans, possibly aliens due to the 'came here' bit.

Two, you know there are only six left. (SPOILERS: Seven if you read the other three books.)

Three, it isn't good to be one of them.

Four, they are being hunted down by a mysterious society we don't know about.

Five, four is in trouble.

Six, four is the main protagonist.

Seven, the group of aliens are not together, due to being killed all in different places.

Eight, they have numbers as names, and this society only kills them in order.

Yes, that is a lot. Eight. But if you think about it, it's not very explanatory. They are aliens, being hunted down by other aliens, and have numbers as names. The plot? To escape with life. But we don't know anything else. What are their powers? How vulnerable are they really? **Questions, questions, questions.**

(Oh, and for the people who don't know, this is the back-cover summary of I Am Number Four. Awesome book, awesome series! Don't know about the movie, 'cause I haven't watched it, although I want to.)

[But the problem with teen books nowadays is that they tell you TOO LITTLE, and you have no idea what the book is about. A perfect example is Divergent. The only reason I had procrastinated reading it is because I have absolutely zilch idea of what it was about. _One choice to decide the entire fate of your life and blah blah blah. _Uh, hello? Still have NO idea what the freaking heck I'm reading! (Sorry, this is more of a rant than a lesson.)]

* * *

In most real life published pieces, though, the summary sort of follows a pattern something like this or in some reversed order: **introduce main character(s), state how normal his/her/their life/lives were before ****_[this _****_bad thing] _****happened. After ****_[this, this, and that], _****will he/she/they be able to do ****_[blank-ity blank blank]_**** before time runs out?**

* * *

**Ways to Make the Summary Different**

**a) Quotes** from the real book or your fanfiction. If the quote is from your own fanfiction, it works best if the story is a oneshot. (On this note, _four_ of my stories have quotes for the summaries—the Most Embarrassing trilogy, and This Is What Friends Are For.

**b) Divergent it!** Make it so that no one knows what your story is about! Make them pull their hair out in frustration! (Although I have yet to see a story like this on FF, and would actually be cool.)

**c) Percy Jackson it!** You know how at the beginning of TLT Percy was talking about how being a demigod was dangerous? In this case, your title has to be a LITTLE more informative because the summary (usually in the first perspective) just talks about their life leading up to that certain point. (Example: _But it all changed when the Fire Nation attacked.)_

**d) Fairy Tale it!** Make it sound like a fairy tale with the 'once upon a time' bit, or a similar version. (_It all started when… In a land far away…_ etc.) Usually these summaries have jokes and are funny, which they sort of need them or else the fairy tale bit sounds flat.

**e) Lorien Legacy it! **Talk in short sentences and to make it sound really ominous.

**f) _HecateA _it! **You know the PJO/HoO fanfiction writer HecateA? The stories have a title, and the summaries continue it. Example (because I know that explanation really sucked): Title; Gifts, Summary; The one thing Leo Valdez can't find perfect enough for Calypso. [Usually these summaries are used for oneshots.]

Remember, these are just ideas coming off of the top of my head. You be creative and think up some more!

* * *

**Homework!**

More exercises! Yay!

_Curse the gods..._

Anyway, for this chapter I'm going to list the main points of two stories as well as their title—a series of oneshots and a multi-chap. In that brilliant mind of yours, you need to come up with a summary for each.

(BTW I'm not actually expecting you to write this down or anything, they're just here to sharpen your mind.)

**1) ****Oneshots:  
Days of the Week**

-For every day of the week (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, etc.), one character of the Seven has a story to tell relating to that day. (Example, Leo always went with his mom to a Mexican food restaurant on Wednesdays, or every Sunday Piper would go surfing with her dad.)  
-All oneshots have a part when the Seven were little, and a reflection or comparison of it when they're older.  
-No OCs  
-Rated K+  
-Fluffy and cute

**2) Multi-chap:  
A War Without End**

-After the war with Gaea the two camps are at peace, until a Greek is murdered. A few days later two Romans are.  
-Contains Adventure, Mystery and lots of romantic tension.  
-Rated T  
-Contains violence

Remember, DON'T GIVE AWAY THE ENDING IN THE SUMMARY-THAT-ISN'T-A-SUMMARY!

* * *

**RECAP**

Quality not quantity!

Explain the story, but don't give anything away. (Synopsis! NOT SUMMARIES BUT SYNOPSIS!) Make the readers ask questions, but not too many questions! Remember my Divergent rant!

Don't add those 'plz review' things in the summary. It creates disinterest, and remember the 'young and immature' rant from the last chapter? (You better remember, because I am going to bring that up a _lot_ in this story.) If you say 'first story', then they'll know you're new, and blindly assume the worse. (People always assume the worse, I'm sorry. I'm certain most of you newcomers are excellent writers.)

Exaggerate, but not too much. I once had a flamer who was mad because he/she thought that I had lied in the summary of Life at the Wilderness School, because although the summary said one thing, the title/genre/characters/awesomeness said another.

And, like for the title, be creative!

**Keep on writing! ;)**

**-Bookworm**


	3. Betas

**Betas**

In this chapter we will talk about the importance of Beta readers, and other fun stuff.

What is a beta reader? **A beta reader is basically an editor,** and although in the real world they only do writing conventions and suggestions to improve reader understanding,** in this FanFiction world they're just editors that do whatever they wanna do. **Being a beta reader is important—_so_ important that there requirements (and FF made these up, I didn't).

**1.** You need to be a FanFiction member for at least a month. (So basically a test to make sure you know how to get around the website and stuff.)  
**2.** Either 5 stories or a total of 6000 written words.

But remember, the 5 stories can be oneshots. Don't freak out.

**And if you honestly believe you aren't a good editor, just don't write up your beta profile.** (Which reminds me to talk about beta profiles next….)

* * *

**Beta profiles! (And you can skip this if you already know it.)**

There are going to be several little boxes. In the first one you write a little note for when you decide to go on vacation. (Example: _Sorry, people. But because I need to focus my time on training my army of munchkins to defend me from the ninjas, I'm not accepting beta requests anymore. Sorry.)_ That one's easy. But afterwards there are five more boxes.

1) FIRST: Explain a little about you and your writing. Don't list what you're good and bad at yet—instead just rant about you as an author. _I first began writing when I was six, then found FanFiction and discovered my passion of fan-girling._ Why do YOU think you are an awesome beta reader? Talk about some original stories. Who inspired you to write? (Not that I'm actually asking you to do this. I HATE it when adults ask this.) What are your favourite books? Authors? Who is the best guy in One Direction? Et cetera.

2) SECOND: Strengths! What are you good at? Making characters not Mary Sues? Catching grammar mistakes and fluidity of sentences? Be truthful!

3) THIRD: Weaknesses! Be honest, what are you not that good at? Like, I for example create run-on sentences _horribly_. It isn't apparent in my fanfiction writing because I have a mostly-dialogue style, but when I'm writing essays for school or whatever these mess me up really bad. But maybe you're bad with dealing with writer's block. Or perhaps you add too many unimportant details. Everyone is different.

4) FOURTH: Preferred! What do you prefer to beta? Action? Romance? Maybe you can beta any movie you have ever seen, or only movies you know really well.

5) FIFTH: Not Preferred! What do you really don't want to beta? For example, I don't like to beta stories where the writer has no idea what will happen, and asks their beta for ideas. (You are the author! You should know what happens! [Of course, writer's block is different.])

Remember, **it's important to answer all these questions.** Maybe the writer needing the beta has all your strengths, but all of your weaknesses as well. They know that even though you are a good author, you can't help them.

After that you go to beta preferences to choose a list of fandoms you're okay to beta for. (Because obviously you don't want someone asking you to beta something you have no idea about.) Then choose your genres and rating. (Because obviously you do NOT want to beta for an M rated story.) Finally language. You can choose up to three, but make sure you know that language well. For example, I speak Spanish (because of my parents) and French (because I'm Canadian, duh) along with my natural English. But am I 100% fluent in these two languages? Eh, not really. Thus, I wouldn't be a good French or Spanish beta reader.

You can find all the details on the site somewhere. Probably in the beta-reader section.

* * *

**ALSO!** If you want to FIND a beta you go to the little menu things on the top of the screen. Click 'Beta', choose for which fandom, and _voila!_ A list appears. Then you decide who you want to pick based on their profile and whatnot!

* * *

Now I wanna talk about my own experiences.

I'm not gonna say who I beta for, or which stories I've beta-ed for, (but for some reason the majority are for the Rise of the Guardians), so don't bother ask.

Anyway, every beta-reader betas in a different way. I'm just gonna say how _I_ do it, and later on explain the two types of editing there are in the world.

How I do it is that I choose three colours (yellow, blue, and purple) and give them a purpose. **The yellow is for a mistake, blue for something I've added, and purple for a suggestion.** These colours cover almost _everything _(for copy-editing)_, _which is why my technique works so well.

YELLOW  
I highlight that part that needs fixing in yellow (BTW this'll only work on Docs) and beside it add a little bolded note saying what needs to be fixed.

BLUE  
Blue is the only colour I don't leave a note for. If something is missing somewhere I add it in and highlight it blue to make sure the author knows what I did. And if it's really big I add a little asterisks (*) and add a note at the bottom of the story.

PURPLE  
Purple is a suggestion and isn't 100% mandatory. For example, I'd use this for fluidity of sentences. I'd highlight the part I think needs fixing and add the bolded note beside it.

Use this technique if you want! I don't own it! (I would also demonstrate, but apparently you can't use colours on normal pages.)

**-o-O-o-**

At the end I usually insert a line break and add some comments that couldn't be added in the story. **Explain what they did well, and what they need to improve on. But don't fix and not tell them what is going on. **This is really important because if you don't do this they won't learn from their mistakes.

**And NEVER be rude.** Ever. This is one thing that I won't tolerate, and be strict about. You are a beta reader. Someone out there is trusting you with his or her work. Do NOT abuse this power to make them feel bad. That is bullying and unacceptable. Feedback and flames are two different things. I love feedback. It's amazing and helps me become a better writer. Flames are just a horrible thing people do because they don't like something, and feel the world should know about it. If you really don't want to beta, then don't sign up to beta in the first place.

Now that the serious is over, time to continue.

* * *

DocX. The wonders about it. You can highlight text, send it to betas… and other than that is the exact same as the story format. What I recommend you do is write out your story on a writing browser like Microsoft or OpenOffice. (Is that two words or one? Or hyphenated? I've never learned.) Then you copy/paste it onto a DocX file, send it to your beta, and wait for it to come back. Read through it and correct your mistakes. Take notes. Learn. Then copy/paste into a story format and publish.

But DocX isn't only for editing—it's for sharing with other authors. I am (was) co-writing another story, for example. I write the chapter, send it, and the other guy posts it.

(Note: both writers have to add the other on their connections thingamajig. If this wasn't so, you'd be getting annoying random blurbs from immature three-year-olds every five seconds… but then again that's what PMs are for.)

That… was surprisingly easy and short. Next topic.

* * *

Do your research! Say you are scrolling through the list of beta readers and stumble across someone you deem decent by their profile. What do you do next? RESEARCH!

**You need to make sure this guy actually knows what he's doing.** He might be on FF for more than a month, and have a surprisingly long oneshot of 6000+ words, but is can he/she actually help you?

I'm not saying that this made up person is a bad writer. What I mean is that maybe he/she lacks in what you lack, and thus can't help you.

* * *

And maybe there's just one part of a chapter you're not sure about. **If it isn't an entire document, just copy/paste that part into a PM.** I did that once. The good thing about this is that you don't have to do the whole DocX connection thing.

* * *

Now, for the most mind-exploding work of this chapter. Pay attention. This'll get really boring, but bear with me.

I'm just going to make this real simple. **TWO KINDS OF EDITING: DEVELOPMENTAL AND COPY-EDITING.** (There may be more—I'm certain of it—but just stick with these two for now. They're the important ones [I think].)

**Developmental:** basically **you make sure it makes sense.** These editors have to work a little more than the copy-editing guys.

Example:  
_Leo screamed in fury and demolished everything in sight with his awesome fire powers.  
_Leo wouldn't do that. Drop the 'awesome' and 'powers'. Instead of 'fury', try 'frustration and agony'. Two sentences instead? Maybe 'all the monsters' instead of 'everything in sight'.

**Copy-editing:** 5 C's. Clear, correct, concise, comprehensible, and consistent. (And yes, I did just get that list from the Web.) Make it say what it means and mean what it says. Basically **you check for grammar, spelling, punctuation, fluidity of sentences, et cetera.**

Example:  
_Percy, an Annabeth held hands as they walks down the harbor.  
_Percy and Annabeth hold hands as they walk down the harbour.  
Percy and Annabeth held hands as they walked down the harbour.

* * *

**RECAP**

Beta reader = editor. Simple.

2 kinds of editing: developmental and copy-editing.

Explain what the author did well and what they need to improve on. Never correct and not explain what went wrong.

While beta-ing, be nice. Never be rude, and if someone beta-ing your story is rude, leave him or her immediately. They obviously don't care for you or your work, and even if they help you they are not worth your time.

Find a guy who can help you!

If it's short, you can use PMs.

**And keep on writing! ;)**

**-Bookworm**


	4. Chapters

**Chapters**

Hey, guys! Ya miss me?

I know you did.

I am a person who's very hard not to miss.

(*whispers*IamsosorrythistooksolongIamsososorryIamahorribleperson*whispers*)

Anyway, I bet you can tell what this chapter is going to be about by looking at the title.

*streamers fly toward the title*

_Percabeth!_

Ha ha, _no._

This chapter is basically going to cover two areas—naming the chapters, and the quantity of the chapters in your story.

This will be a short chapter.

Brace yourselves.

* * *

**NAMING!**

**So, naming chapters is not exactly the same thing as titling stories. **With story titles you just need to reel the readers in—once you get to the chapter titles they're already reading the story, so you don't need to spend so much time thinking about it.

**Now, it is not 100% ****_necessary_**** to title your chapters… unless you are doing a series of oneshots.**

FanFiction by default names your chapters 'chapter one', 'chapter two', 'chapter three', and so forth, but if you're doing a series of oneshots PLEASE name each oneshot a different thing so that we can FIND and DISTINGUISH each mini-story.

But other than a series of oneshots, you don't _need_ to name oneshot stories with chapter names anyway. I mean, why would you? It's only one chapter.

_Wait…._

*quickly goes and checks a FanFiction oneshot*

Aha! Oneshots don't even have the option of naming the sole chapter!

Okay, then. At least now I don't have to discuss _that._

WAIT! I am a liar. I need to speak briefly about twoshots and threeshots and all those other lovely… shots.

**If you have so little chapters in your story that it can be considered a –shot****, then you don't have to name those chapters either. **(But you could, if you really wanted to.)

Now back to the multi-chapters.

If you are doing a multi-chap story, you don't _need_ to name chapters. You have a choice.

**Here, I guess, it's okay to be a little silly with naming if you want to… IF it corresponds to the genre. **(Like, you won't name the chapter titles of the sad life of Nico 'Rainbows and Unicorns' without a really, _really_ good reason. Like, he's on drugs or something and he sees rainbows and unicorns in his hallucinations.)

Example…

First chapter of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, '_I Accidentally Vaporize My Pre-Algebra Teacher'. _**This works because the book is a funny book, so you can have a funny title.**

**-o-O-o-**

_But how_ should_ I name my chapters?_ _Help me, Bookworm!_

A few styles of naming chapters off the top of my head…

**POVs/Names: **If you have alternating POVs in the story (like in HoO), you could make your chapter titles simply the person who is narrating. (But the story better be in the third perspective, then. More on this in a future chapter.)

**Similar Titles: **Remember those book series that all had similar book titles? (a.k.a. Lorien Legacies?) You can do that with chapter titles too. (I did this in LatWS—all had chapter titles that were _something _and _something_. This'll be super-cool if the STORY title was like this as well, and the chapters followed the pattern.)

**Whatever the Chapter is About: **Most common; basically what happens in the chapter. Oho! Someone dies? Chapter title: Last Words **(NOTE: DO NOT REVEAL WHAT HAPPENS IN THE CHAPTER IN THE TITLE. WE HAVE DISCUSED THIS BEFORE.) (Smaller Note: Here is where you have to look at the grade of silliness your title vs. chapter content is.)**

**Quote:** Remember what I said that you could use a quote for the story title and/or summary? You can do that with chapter titles as well… but then the quote has to be just one or two words.

**Chapter one, chapter two, chapter tree—I mean, three…: **Self-explanatory.

**Setting/Time: **If the story moves around a lot and is super action-y, then you can Secret Agent it and use the location and time. Or you can do just the setting, or just the time.

**-o-O-o-**

_Oh, but Bookworm, what if my story doesn't correspond well with a certain type of chapter title because of its level of silliness?!_

*ahem ahem*

BRING FORTH THE SACRED TEXT OF GENRES!

Now, before I go chivalry on you with all the varieties of this website, _I shall grant thee with a pinch of knowledge that will release your mind to ease_: **naming thy chapters is done the same way as naming thy story itself. **

(Old-timey talk. I love it.)

This basically means that for every genre there's a type of naming stories that should be used. (Recommended-wise. I'm not forcing you guys to actually do this.)

**Angst/hurt/comfort/tragedy/etc.:**  
'Whatever the chapter is about', okay, as long as the chapter is sad and depressing like the story too  
_Similar titles…_ well, okay.  
If the POVs are alternating, then do POVs.  
Quotes would be okay

**Adventure/action/mystery/fantasy/etc.:**  
If humorous: whatever's in the chapter (think PJatO)  
If serious: then normal counting (chapter one, chapter two, chapter three…)  
For either: setting/time

**Romance/drama/family/friendship/etc.:**  
Okay, so these are more lively and upbeat genres. I would say anything would be okay, as long as the titles are upbeat and lively as well.

**Parody:**  
Whatever happens in the chapter with silly titles—that's my best recommendation.

(I know I didn't hit all the genres, but that's okay, because you've got a good idea now.)

**The bottom line is, whatever the genre is, the chapter title should be at the same level of silliness.**

…Wow. I feel like I just wrote all that out just to summarize it in one sentence.

**-o-O-o-**

**PS: Just because they're chapter titles and not story titles doesn't mean you can just do whatever. **If you really can't think of anything, go for plain old 'chapter one', 'chapter two', chapter three', and so on. (Unless it's a series of oneshots. Then just go simple and try 'whatever the chapter is about'.)

* * *

**QUANTITY!**

**It doesn't matter how many chapters you have. **You can have two or twenty or fifteen ba-jillion.

There.

That was mind-blowingly horrific.

**But make the naming CONSISTENT. **If you have the title for one chapter a POV, the next a quote, the next something completely different… _that is not considered consistent. _If you do POVs, then ALL the chapters are POVs. Quotes? Oh, good. ALL the chapter titles are quotes.

(I basically had this entire 'quantity' section just to say that. So REMEMBER IT.)

* * *

Now, since I've only written three pages and a half on Microsoft and I feel highly discouraged with the way this chapter came out, we shall do EXCERSIZES!

This is how it works—I give you the title and summary of a story. Then, in your mind, you figure out how YOU would lay out the chapter titles, completely disregarding the list I made above.

Simple?

Good. Because I have no other idea how to explain it.

Runaway  
Six times. Six times did Leo Valdez run away, be it from foster homes or orphanages. These are the tales of the road from our favourite runaway.

Over the Rainbow  
Somewhere over the rainbow… someone lives a happier life. Somewhere over the rainbow… a child is laughing for the first time. Somewhere over the rainbow… someone's dreams are about to come true, while over on this side someone's are only getting darker. Poems of dreams of over the rainbow.

The Darkest of All Blackmails  
High School Senior Annabeth Chase has moved from California to New York in an attempt to leave her old self behind. But she is quickly put in danger when a certain green-eyed classmate gets a hold of her secret. Will she be able to lie her way out of this? Or will the truth of Annabeth's past be revealed? AU

* * *

**RECAP**

It is not _necessary_ to title your chapters unless you are doing a series of oneshots, and in which case it IS mandatory.

Whatever the genre is, the chapter title should be at the same level of silliness. The silliness scale has to balance out.

**And, remember, keep writing!**

**-B. 1756**


	5. Rating, Word and Genre

**Rating/Words/Genre**

HELLO!

_Wait! Wait, Bookworm! You know you're covering THREE subjects today, right?_

*sigh* Yes, I know.

_Wait! WAIT, Bookworm! Why on EARTH are you covering THREE subjects today? Do you know—?_

YES! I know! Have you SEEN what they're about?

*pause as you go check*

The reason, my young people of this universe, is that they're super easy and I can go through them in, like, three seconds. That's one second for each, mind you.

Let's get started!

(Oh, and BTW this chapter is going to have a lot of obvious stuff you guys probably know already. So just imagine how it would be to have these three chapters SEPARATELY. I've just saved your behinds here.)

* * *

**RATING!**

**The rating is basically when you tell people who can read it.** Like in movies, when they say something is PG it's normally for the family. G is for little kids. PG-13 is for mature tweens, teenagers, and anyone older than that; 14A is for folks a little more mature; and R for really mature people and really stupid little kids.

Same with rating. **K is little kids.** Like, really really little kids. Like, I could read it to my five-months-year-old baby cousin and she'd have no problem. Then is **K+, which is meant for kids something like six and up** because it says words like 'stupid' and 'pathetic'. You say 'stupid' to a four-year-old and they freak, thinking that you're about to go to the Fields of Punishment forever. (BTW the K stands for 'kids'.)

Then T. T stands for 'teenager', but I guess it's okay for mature tweens as well.** This is because in T stories there are a little more older-person topics and mentions**, such as swearing, dirty jokes, death, gore, and intense Percabeth make-out sessions. Things you couldn't say to a nine-year-old, but be okay with to a twelve-year-old. (Even though T is only supposed to read by teenagers, you'd be surprised of the dirtiness of children these days. Take my school playground for instance. *shivers*)

But sometimes people rate their stories T because they want to be safe. And that's not a problem.

Then M. Ah, M. I have never read an M, mostly because I wish to keep my sanity. (They're so bad that when you go to the list of stories to read they don't show up. You've gotta find them on a profile or something.) **M are 'mature' reads, only to be read by adults, or possibly really established teenagers.** This includes intense swearing, intense graphic death scenes, and… *winces*.

You know what? To keep this story K+ I'm not gonna say it. If you really want to know (or if I haven't dropped enough hints already), just Google it. I'm not gonna say it.

**-o-O-o-**

Now, what if you don't know what to rate your story?

If you seriously don't know, do T. Better safe than story. (Just PLEASE don't mention it in the summary. Diminishes summary impact, and reduces reader interest. If you really feel the need to do it, do it in an Author's Note at the beginning of your story. That's allowed.)

If you find that your story isn't all that 'teenager worthy', then by all means lower it! You're allowed to do that! And if you start low and there seems to be this trend that starts, making your story more graphic, then raise the rating!

And if you're writing a story that's all K+ except for one chapter, don't change the rating for that one thing. Just mention in an Author's Note at the beginning about the rating change, and how it'll be back to normal continuing onward.

* * *

**WORDS!**

_What the heck, Bookworm? Why on earth are you doing 'words' as a topic? That's just weird._

Ahem ahem. At least let me _start_ before criticizing my unoriginality.

By 'words' I mean how many words should be in each chapter.

**_250 or less:_** That's… short. Really short. And remember, FanFiction tells you how many words are written in each document, including your Author Notes. Two ANs both 500 words long and then a story of 100 words doesn't make a fanfiction of 1100 words.

But then again, if you're writing a series of oneshots and one oneshot is super short, we don't care. **As long as you update on a regular basis.** But for just an ordinary oneshot… you might wanna add something to it. Short stories (on FanFiction, at least) are usually 500 words to 7000 words. Remember that. (They _can_ be longer, but then technically they're novelettes.)

**(NOTE:** Drabbles [100 words or less] should be the only stories less than 250 words, and be part of a series of oneshots. Sorry.)

**_250-500:_ **Uh… still really short. But if your story is just a short little oneshot drabble that wouldn't leave you alone last night in bed, then this is fine. But for an actual chapter to a multi-chapter story? **Do as you please, but just keep in mind that you don't need to rush anything.** Add details. Adjectives. Think about what the protagonist can see, what his/her emotions are, add little jokes… et cetera.

**_500-1000:_ **Better. For my Dumb Ways to Die story, most of my oneshots were 700 words. You could also make just an ordinary oneshot this length as well, if you wanted to.

**_1000-4000:_ **This is about the length of chapters folk want oneshots/chapters to be. Long, yet not boringly long. You know, with the extra boring details the author adds but no one cares about? Those. Most of my Life at the Wilderness School (not all, mind you) were 1500 words long. That's, like, three/four/five Microsoft pages (font 12-14). This is another good length. **You wanna get those stories from around 700 words to 3000,** because the longer the better for the reader, but not the better for you or your story.

**-o-O-o-**

I shall explain now, and then receive tons of hate saying that I'm selfish and manipulative.

**Consider this; for a oneshot to get forty reviews is amazing, although a story of ten chapters might have the same amount but not be so spectacular. Why? Because the chapters to reviews ratio for the oneshot is bigger. Forty reviews per chapter. But for the multi-chap the ratio is four reviews per chapter.**

**But another reason this is amazing for the oneshot is because less people have _seen_ the oneshot.**

Now consider this; the default organization filter to list stories is by updates (I'm talking about when you go on that page that lists all the fanfictions of that fandom). Basically it lists stories by update date. A oneshot only goes up there once. A multi-chapter story goes up there as many times as it has chapters. So theoretically speaking, more people have seen the multi-chapter, but less have read it.

Now, if your chapters are long and you update once a day, you have a lot of free time (or you are procrastinating, like I usually am) a little TOO much. Do your homework. Go outside. Ride a bike. Don't spend so much time indoors writing. Wait, I take that back. Grab a pencil** (never a pen, they can't erase),** a notebook, a bike, and ride to the nearest ice cream parlour. Buy an ice cream, sit outside, and write there. It's amazing (although after a while your hand will cramp, and, if you live in Canada like me, going outside for ice cream ten months of the year will turn you into a popsicle).

And two (this is more for the story and not for your social life with outdoor activity), **if your chapters are longer, you have less chapters. (Obviously.) And if you have fewer chapters, then less people will see your marvellous story.**

**It's an author manipulation tactic.**

(And now I sit back and wait for the hate to start rolling in.)

**-o-O-o-**

**_4000-10000:_ **Very nice. **But don't be afraid to take some unnecessary things out.** It's quality, not quantity.

**_10000+: _**You are amazing. Like, seriously, you are a holy being. (**But just consider… do you have too****_ much _****detail? **There's such thing, you know. Review. Go back. Get a beta reader. Double check.) Anyway, just remember what I said above about splitting long things into smaller chapters.

* * *

**GENRE!**

Ah, the genre! Another form of classification along with the rating!

There are lots of different types of genres. I won't write them all out, but list a few possibilities:

Is the story romantic? Humorous? Dramatic? Poetic? Adventurous? Mysterious? Horrifying? A parody? Sorrowful? Supernatural? Suspenseful? Sci-fi? Fantasy? Spiritual? Tragic? Western? Criminal? Family? Comfort over a hurt one? Friendship? None of these? Et cetera.

Wait… not et cetera. I just listed all the genres.

Dang it! I thought I wasn't going to do that! *starts walking around in circles and banging head with a frying pan*

Anyway, in a fanfiction you can choose two of these. Sort of like how you can choose four characters. The most popular genres for PJO/HoO (or the ones that I've seen the most) are:

**a) **Humour  
**b) **Adventure  
**c) **Tragedy  
**d) **Romantic  
**e) **Friendship/Family  
**f) **Hurt/Comfort

People are just drawn to these sorts of stories. They have the perfect blend of they want, and they can relate to them. Humour, yeah, I know what that is. Adventure? Sure. Action and explosions and stuff.

(But if you decide to give your story a genre of 'suspenseful' over 'adventurous' or something, it isn't much of a big deal. Don't cry in bed at night over it.)

**-o-O-o-**

Now, there is ONE genre that completely (okay, mostly) demolishes all these rules I will list in this guide, and that genre is **PARODY.**

So basically do what you want with that one, (just try not to blow anything up).

**-o-O-o-**

But what if you don't know what genres to give your story? Well, I dunno either. Every story is different. It's important not to write down whatever, because people are looking at that as well. **But don't lie just to attract attention either.** People these days are really picky about that.

So I will make up a title and summary, and YOU will decide (on your own) what two genres it should be given! Sort of like a fun activity and exercise. There will be four!

_Summer Days  
_Ah… the wonders of summer. No homework, kids play outdoors for once, parents seem sulkier than usual… et cetera. Unfortunately, Leo's summer hasn't exactly been 'fun'. (Remember that war against Gaea? Yeah… that kinda scarred him for life.) But Camp Jupiter is right next door to one of the world's natural wonders, and they might as well take advantage of it.

_Gone  
__Piper sobbed in her hands. "Is he really…?" she asked, as if there was still a small chance that the inevitable had yet to come. She didn't finish, not wanting to say it. Jason wrapped his arms around her comfortingly. "I'm sorry," he said. "But Leo is gone."_

_Runaway_  
Six times. Six times did Leo Valdez run away, be it from foster homes or orphanages. These are the tales of the road from our favourite runaway.

_Over the Rainbow_  
Somewhere over the rainbow… someone lives a happier life. Somewhere over the rainbow… a child is laughing for the first time. Somewhere over the rainbow… someone's dreams are about to come true, while over on this side someone's are only getting darker. Poems of dreams of over the rainbow.

(Notice how three out of four of those stories somehow included Leo. I am too much of a fan-girl.)

And there are no correct answers! Just opinions!

* * *

**RECAP**

Rating:  
K: (3-9)  
K+: Older kid (6-12)  
T: Teenager/Tween (11+)  
M: Mature adult (16+)

Ideal story length: 700-1500. 2000-3000 if you're a really good author and have some sort of reason to keep your chapters long.

**And keep on writing! ;)**

**-Bookworm_ el Magnifica_**


	6. Reviews

**Reviews**

Ah, reviews. The wonderful diddly-doddly world of reviews.

(I'm running out of intro ideas, okay?)

In this chapter we shall be discussing one key point, and basically mention another. The first is the thing you will be reading about after this line break.

* * *

**There are four kinds of reviews:**

**1. Feedback  
****2. Flames  
****3. Actual Comments **(examples: reminders that you're awesome, idea suggestions [mainly for series of oneshots], fan-girling)  
**4. Everything Else **(examples: reviews that focus on the most little random things of an AN or mentions in the story, random tales of life, random words, things that have nothing to do with the story but are about the review itself, things that just don't have anything to do with the story whatsoever, and everything else that is completely and extravagantly random)

Examples of each:

FEEDBACK:  
_ThatAwesomeFanfictioner1756  
_Nice story, but there's this thing that keeps nagging me as I read… you use the word 'like' a lot, and it gets irritating after seven chapters. Just thought I'd let you know.

FLAMES:  
_ThatEvilFanfictioner1756  
_oh my god this iss such a dmub stry this wud nevre hapenn inn the sries your stuopid *finishes by spelling a bunch of other words incorrectly*

ACTUAL COMMENTS:

Example One:  
_ThatLoveableFanfictioner1756  
_I love this story! Keep up the good work!

Example Two:  
_ThatOtherLoveableFanfictionerThatHatesPiper4NoReason1756  
_Really good! Maybe there can be a chapter where Piper falls into a ditch and dies or something?

EVERYTHING ELSE:

Example One:  
[Author mentions cookies in an AN.]  
_ThatRandomFanfictioner1756  
_Cokies? Ii luv coockys

Example Two:  
_HopefullyTheLastRandomFanfictioner1756  
_Splerch

Example Three:  
_OkayIGuessNotTheLastRandomFanfictioner1756  
_This is a review. I get cookies now

Example Four:  
_TheMostIdioticRandomFanfictioner1756  
_I AM TAKING OVER THIS WEBSITE ONE REVIEW AT A TIME

* * *

Now, we shall discuss them.

What is the difference between feedback and a flame? It should be obvious:

**Feedback helps you be a better writer, may be harsh, but aren't rude or mean. **

**Flames just kick you in the butt and tell you to go die in a hole.**

What "may be harsh" means is that feedback doesn't have to be downright kind, but it shouldn't be rude or disrespectful.

Example:

_TheSameAwesomeFanfictionerFromTheFirstExample1756  
_There's this thing that's bugging me: you say "she boogied to the beat" twenty-six and a half times in the same chapter. It gets monochromatic. And watch Percy's OOC-ness.

**THIS IS FINE. **

It doesn't snap fingers in your face and say, "Hon, go find a new hobby."

It doesn't say either, "Oh, and PS… UNICORNS AND RAINBOWS YOU ARE THE MOST AMAZING TALENTED PERSON IN THIS ENTIRE UNIVERSE GO HUG A TREE!"

It helps you… and that's what feedback is. I know some people will get hurt if they read a review like this, but there is no reason to.

**-o-O-o-**

…But what if you DO get flamed?

_TheFirstEvilFanfictioner'sEvenMoreEvilTwin1756  
_This story is stupid. Delete it immediately or I'll report it for its stupidfullity.

FIRST of all… you can't delete a story because YOU don't like it. Shut up.  
SECOND of all… 'stupidfullity' isn't even a word. Go back to grade one.

**Best tactic: Ignore it.** Pretend those evil fanfictioners don't exist. If it really bothers you, report the flame, and if it's a Guest review, delete the comment. I wrote this part of the chapter before I posted this story, and I can already foresee that SOMEONE is going to flame:

_TheFanfictionerThatIsStartingToGetReallyAnnoying1756  
_ermahgerd you try to hard to be funny just stop your killing my brain cells owww_  
_

In which I respond as:

PUNCTUATION. ERMAHGERD PEOPLE.

**-o-O-o-**

Now, I turn away from the existent flamers to the future ones.

**Don't flame. **What's the point, even? A low-class subject of bullying from behind the safety your monitor?

Please.

Don't be a jerky bully.

Be a jerky polite person. The jerkiness and the politeness cancel each other out so that you are left as a person… which is what I hope you wish to be. (Unless you wish to be a dinosaur. In that case, I applaud you.)

**Instead of flaming, give feedback.**

And if a story REALLY bothers you, do Leo's Plan B.

RUN. FREAKING. AWAY.

The writer doesn't have a way to know whether or not YOU YOURSELF AS A USER read their story or not. If you have a problem with it—like, a not feedback problem but a real hate problem—just walk away. Pretend you never even saw the story.

**This isn't an excuse not to review—it's an excuse not to flame.**

**-o-O-o-**

Yeah, I know, I portrayed the "everything else" reviews in a pretty bad light, but not all of them are pointless.

Example:

_OhGodsNoNotAnotherRandomFanfictioner1756  
_I can totally imagine this happening... for some reason when I read [THIS PART], I saw [THIS HAPPEN IN MY HEAD]. But this works better...

This is fine. So are the "just comments" reviews.

This is not fine:

_TheMostRandomFanfictionerEver1756  
_poop

* * *

Now, I will shock you with a fact that will rattle your brain and shake the foundations of the world you live in.

**It doesn't matter how many reviews your story has.**

**It. Doesn't. Matter.**

***gasp***

Life at the Wilderness School got 400+ reviews, and I think that's amazing.

I thought The Blood of Olympus would be similar, but after twenty chapters I only had 66 reviews.

I didn't care. I enjoyed writing BoO, and that's what mattered.

**If you're writing a story, and you hate it, you absolutely just LOATHE writing what you're writing, but you keep going for your reviewers… MAKE it fun! What's the point in writing if you're not enjoying what you're doing?**

**(But of course, this should NEVER EVEN OCCUR because of your pre-writing stage that we will talk about… as the last chapter.)**

* * *

**RECAP**

**1. **Flames  
**2. **Feedback  
**3. **Comments  
**4. **Everything Else

Reviews don't matter—just enjoy what you're writing.

Don't flame, and **don't forget to be awesome!**

**_-TheMostAwesomeFanfictioner1756_**


	7. CONTENT: Types of Stories

**Types of Stories**

Now we enter the second half of our guide! CONTENT!

YAY!

Anyway, in this section I will be explaining the actual STORY, and not the steps to getting a reader there.

So today, because it's really easy, we will be starting off with TYPES OF STORIES! This chapter will be short, I'm sorry, but I got stuck while writing. Not very pleased with how it came out, but I tried my best.

* * *

**There are two main types of stories! Normal stories, and crossovers! **They're even separated when you go searching for a fanfiction to read.

Normal stories are normal stories. Duh. Crossovers are two fandoms combined into one. Duh.

*presses the Staples's easy button*

* * *

Now, we keep breaking it down! There are two MORE types of stories.

Oneshots  
Multi-Chapter

And that's it.

* * *

**Oneshots!**

Oneshots have a long list of other variations, such as…

Poems  
Series of oneshots (which I don't count as multi-chaps)  
Song-fics  
Twoshots  
Threeshots  
Drabbles  
Fluff  
Crack-fics

A oneshot is used for short story that doesn't have a long enough plot to become a multi-chap. Maybe it's just a moment you had a headcannon for, and wanted to share with the world. Because they are only one chapter, you have to make them a little bit longer (except if it is a drabble, or in a series of oneshots—we've discussed this in the past). 1000+ is fine.

**-o-O-o-**

Poems. Ah, poems. You know, in English class, this unit was really boring because all your teacher did was hand you a worksheet that gave you an example of one, explained it in horrifying detail, and told you to write your own.

The thing is, **poems DO have guidelines. Sorry. But those guidelines are flexible.** Your poem doesn't HAVE to rhyme, and you can choose however many lines you want it to have.

Usually poems are told in the first perspective, meaning 'I'. This is so that you can get inside your character's thoughts and feelings and use them into the poem. Poems are elegant and graceful, even the humorous ones. Make sure it flows and makes sense in an elegant and graceful manner… like… like an elegant and graceful metaphor.

Another trick… SONG LYRICS!

Yes! Song lyrics are just poems with a beat and background music! It's true! When I was writing Mount Olympus Dance Party, I occasionally had to make up my own lyrics to the song. And that was great poem practice! If you want to get good at writing poems, choose any song you want and copy/paste the lyrics to SOMEWHERE. Listen to the song a bajillion times, and write down your own lyrics, using the real ones as a guide. This takes time, but the end product is AMAZING, I promise. I loved doing it.

**-o-O-o-**

Series of oneshots. Yes.

Just remember these oneshots should be similar. Maybe it's because all of them are romance, or based on a certain character, or whatever. My story Dumb Ways to Die is a series of oneshots, and they relate together because of the song. Another example is Lost Moments of HoO. They're all lost moment of HoO.

*incredible amounts of sarcasm that drip to the floor in thick pasty blobs_* _

They have the same rules as a oneshot, because all they are a bunch of oneshots stringed together into a longer story.

**-o-O-o-**

Song-Fics are what they sound like. Stories with songs in them. The only bad part about these is that you've gotta put TWO disclaimers in the AN.

So this is how they work; you have a character interacting with another. Every few paragraphs or lines, add half a verse in italics, using the little ellipses (the dot dot dot thing) thing before and after.

But here's something that'll save you a lot… Write the story BEFORE adding in the lyrics! If you bend the story to fit your lyrics, you end up adding and taking out some things that were never meant to be, and ending up with a horrible mutation! Frankenstein would be jealous!

And, hey, you never know! Maybe you'll ditch the song and like your story the way it is!

* * *

**Multi-Chapter**

These are the ones with several chapters. Some genres need to be multi-chaps, because they have to be long and complex by default.

(And by 'some genres', I mean just mystery.)

MCs (I'm just referring to them as that now because 'multi-chap' is too long to write over and over) are longer and thus have more depth to them. That's what makes the pre-writing stage in your writing SO FREAKING IMPORTANT. (More on those stages in a, you guessed it, future chapter.)

With a larger word-count, there are more ways you can contradict yourself by accident. You have to be prepared to go back and double-check things you've written before, or edit them again.

Also, you need the resolve to write a multi-chap. These are several chapters you have to write and upload on an acceptable schedule—can you handle all this?

If so, congratulations!

* * *

**Both**

Both oneshots and MCs have certain qualities. Such as a beginning, middle, and end.

_Aw, seriously?_ you ask. _This is turning into grade six English._

But I'm serious.

Ha! I'm never serious. Well, sometimes. Maybe once or twice.

*clears throat* Anyway.

_Well, of course, _you argue, _if you take a story and split it into three parts, that's obviously a beginning, middle and end._

Yeah.

_Exactly._

The beginning is where the characters and location and setting of that point are introduced. This is also where the _problem _is stated. This part of the stories continues until the middle begins.

This part of the story doesn't need to only take up one chapter. It can take up several.

The ending is where the problem is resolved, or the mystery is uncovered, or when the demigods beat up Dirt Face. All plots should be tied, leaving the reader satisfied. (I just realized what a hypocrite I am… *cough_lifeatthewildernessschool_cough*)

The middle is basically everything else. There shouldn't be just one thing happening in the middle—add complications. You can either have several things happening at once (romantic drama with several leads to a mystery), or a lot of things happening one after the other (like in the Heroes of Olympus books).

Example:

Remember that example from, like, the second chapter? In which someone is mysteriously killing Greeks and Romans even after the peace was made?

Beginning: maybe a chapter to settle in to the story, then the second chapter ends as a cliffhanger when they discover the first body. Then, third chapter, there is an outrage in the Greeks and Octavian tries to get everyone to turn on each other, and Reyna somehow manages peace, and fourth chapter: WHAMO! Two new bodies, this time Romans.

Middle: the Seven and Nico and Reyna and a few others begin to investigate. -The murderer targets someone else, but doesn't finish the job properly and the poor guy is knocked out for several days. When healed, he/she should be able to tell them who the murderer is, but then is killed the night he/she's supposed to be healed. -The praetors and leaders of CHB begin to desperately try to stop the two camps from going to war with one another. -They pick up two different leads and follow both. -Jason and Piper are having relationship problems.

Ending: they discover who is the murderer, and his/her intentions. The murderer tries to get away, stabs someone, I dunno, and what continues from then is for the writer to decide if he or she wants to create a sequel or not.

Another example with a more familiar tone: The Son of Neptune  
Beginning: Percy manages to make it to CJ. He meets Hazel and Frank, Frank receives a quest and is claimed at the same time, and they head off.  
Middle: EVERYTHING ELSE.  
End: ...Except for the fight at Alaska and CJ.

**-o-O-o-**

Most genres can fit into any category, so you musn't worry about that.

Also, there are kinds of stories (story formats) that can go for either.

**1. **AU: Alternate Universe. Basically the same characters with the same personalities, but they're not demigods or any of that. Maybe they're normal teenage kids. Maybe they're secret agents working for the CIA. Whateves.  
**2. **UA: Universe Alternated. The same universe, but changed a little. Such as Bianca still being alive, or Thalia never joining the Hunt.  
**3. **Characteristic!someone: Basically you take a person or a group of people and give them a different personality (happy, sad, mad, etc.) or main characteristic (demigod, god, Greek, Roman, etc.) Examples: happy!Nico, quiet!Reyna, Greek!Jason.  
**4. **Diary: Self-explanatory. These stories _have _to be past tense first-perspective, because the narrator is the main character (duh) and it definitely happened in the past (double-duh).

And, yeah. Those were basically all the ones off the top of my head.

* * *

There isn't much need for a RECAP in this chapter, so I'll just end it off here.

Next chapter is OCs and OOC-ness! I've already started writing, and I like how it's coming out.

**Keep being amazingly amazing!**

**-Bookworm Seventeen Fifty-Six**


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